You need your own website and email list because every platform you post on can change its rules, lose its audience or disappear, and the only things you control are the site and the list you own. Substack, Pinterest and Instagram are great places to be found. They are not a safe place to keep your business. Post there, but send people back to a home you own.
I have been spending more time on Substack lately because it gives me a calm feeling similar to Pinterest. I still repost what I write to my blog and keep growing my email list, because that is what protects the work if a platform ever goes away.
Why do I need my own website if I already post on Substack or social media?
Any platform, however good it feels today, could disappear or change. If you start on Substack, repost your writing to a blog and build an email list alongside it. That way your readers and your archive belong to you, not to an app.
Owning your site matters for more than ownership, though. It also changes how professional your signup experience feels and how much you can learn from it, which is what the next sections cover.
What does a landing page and thank-you page do that a signup form alone can’t?
My latest freebie has its own landing page and its own thank-you page, both hosted on my Showit site. Together they feel far more personal than a signup form that redirects someone to a generic confirmation screen. The reader stays inside my brand from the first click to the last.
Pages on your own site are also easier to track, which brings me to the part most designers skip.
How do I know which platform is actually sending me customers?
Pinterest is one of my biggest referral sources, so I need to know where clicks come from and what converts. I use a UTM spreadsheet, shared by a friend who knows Pinterest very well, along with Pinterest tags. When your freebie lives on your own pages, you can see which link or pin brought each person in instead of guessing.
What is the simplest way to get started?
You do not need a complicated setup. Start with three pieces:
- A signup form placed on a landing page on your own website.
- Your first email workflow, so a new subscriber gets something right away. If you are choosing a platform, here is why I like Flodesk for small businesses.
- A thank-you page that confirms the signup and tells them what happens next.
Once those three exist, every new freebie or offer can reuse the same structure. When I cleaned up my own forms and workflows, every small update led to another one, so I would build the simple version first and refine it later.
Where can I find a website template for my landing and thank-you pages?
If you are building on Showit or Squarespace, you do not have to start from a blank page. My shop templates include website templates you can customize to fit your brand, so your freebie pages look like the rest of your business.
Frequently asked questions
It is a good place to be found and to write, but it is a platform you do not control. I recommend reposting your writing to your own blog and growing an email list so your audience is never tied to one app.
It should confirm the signup, feel like your brand, and tell the new subscriber what happens next. A custom thank-you page on your own site looks far more personal than a redirect from a signup form.
If you know where clicks come from, you know what is working. Pinterest is one of my biggest referral sources, so I use UTM links and Pinterest tags to see which ones convert.
They do different jobs. The blog is a home for your work that you own, and the email list lets you reach people directly. Together they keep your business from depending on any single platform.
If you click on my affiliates/products/advertisers links, I may receive a tiny commission. P.S. the products that I share are the ones I believe in.
